The case for the defense, plus other Orioles notes

Trey Mancini homered again and for the second time in two games in the series against New York, the Orioles got the lead. But they gave up more homers last night and lost to the Yankees 6-4 at Camden Yards.

The Orioles led 4-1 in the sixth on Thursday but allowed the game's last seven runs to lose 8-4. They scratched out two big runs in the seventh last night to lead 4-3 but lost 6-4. Clint Frazier's three-run homer in the eighth off Miguel Castro's hanging slider put New York over the top.

The Yankees have hit seven homers in this series to account for all 14 of their runs. The Orioles have now lost three in a row, allowing nine homers and 19 runs to fall to 4-4 after their 4-1 start. The O's 'pen has allowed 13 runs in 14 2/3, including five homers the past three games.

The O's bullpen ERA is 6.14 on the season. The bullpen has allowed runs and yielded at least one homer in all eight games.

Let's talk about defense, though: Yes it is a very, very small sample size, but the Orioles defense has been solid to start the 2019 season. It looks improved over the 2018 version, perhaps well improved.

Going into Saturday's games, the Orioles had made just two errors and only Milwaukee had fewer, with one, among all major league teams. The O's .992 fielding percentage ranked fifth in the American League and their defensive rating on Fangraphs.com ranked second in the majors.

Repeating, yes it's early and we know that, but what we've seen so far has been encouraging. Right-handed starter Alex Cobb has seen the same from his view in the dugout and Thursday on the mound.

"Not only our defensive abilities, but our defensive positioning has been very good so far," Cobb said. "We've seen multiple line-outs where we've been positioned in the right spots. When you are out there and facing a good big league team, it's very difficult to get four outs. When we steal an out, it goes a long way to getting that momentum we are looking for."

Maybe the data and defensive positioning followed Mike Elias and his staff from Houston.

"I think they've put their own touch on it," Cobb said. "The computer can spit out whatever numbers you want, but unless you have the right coaches able to relay that to the fielders and put them in the right position, it's useless. From top to bottom, from the front office giving the coaching staff the information they need to make those decisions, it's been really good so far."

Here is manager Brandon Hyde's take on the early look at the defense: "We take a lot of pride in doing our homework and putting our guys into position to have success. Our defensive guys put a lot of time into how we are going to position. It's important to us.

"I also think we're pretty athletic. And that we have guys that can make the plays defensively and we take a lot of pride in our defense. It's a little bit of everything (to have success there). It's some homework on how we are going to position and it's kind of the mindset we started in spring training in how we wanted to improve this club defensively.

"Guys have taken ownership in it and so far, so good. We've been pretty sound defensively and I think we're only going to get better. I said early in spring training we have a long way to go, and we still do. But I'm really happy how we've played so far."

The Orioles host the Yankees today to wrap up this three-game series. If they win, they will be 3-3 against New York. Right-hander David Hess, coming off his no-hitter over 6 1/3 last Monday, gets the start for Baltimore.

Radio day: I'll be on 105.7 FM the Fan before and after today's game. At noon, I'll host "Orioles Baseball Tonight," and about a half-hour after the last pitch I'll be back taking calls and sizing up the game on "Extra Innings."